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LeberMac came to in a remote portion of the station with a stranger standing over him, yapping on about something. He’d managed to hold onto his flag, but his tequila cup was nowhere to be found. The person standing over him kept making insistent speaking noises that seemed to be aimed at him, so LeberMac experimentally cracked open one eye and peered at the shadowy figure, he picked up the last few lines that sounded something like “…who are you and what needs to be done?"
Well, that was certainly a good question. His head hurt quite a bit, he seemed to remember running somewhere with a crowd and then falling face first into a leafy planting pot, then a lot of loud noise along with being dragged somewhere, then more loud noises and being dragged some more to this place, which was nice because it was quieter. It was kind of hard to breathe, and everything looked dark red, and he had forgotten the question. LeberMac struggled to get up and flailed about a little bit, leaning on the corridor’s wall for support. “I’m shorry, mister…ah…”
“Samwise.” The pirate said. “Call me Sam.”
“Mrphf…Okay,” LeberMac said flatly, “Whawwaz yer question?”
“I need to know who you are, and why I’m here on this station risking my ass to get you off it.” Samwise quipped, linking his arm under LeberMac’s shoulder and helping him along down the hallway, which was much better then dragging and carrying him. LeberMac motioned to stop after they had passed a few more doorways, and he slumped down heavily outside a somewhat more well-lit door that had a glowing “Do Not Disturb” sign on it.
“Okay, welp, it seems that I canna… really ‘member what my name is, anni certainly dunno where I am. Why ish everything sho blurry?” LeberMac spouted.
A deep voice echoed out of the shadows, “Because you’re a filthy degenerate drunk, LeberMac.” The words were followed by twin blaster pistols that glinted redly in the station’s emergency lighting, pointed at Samwise’s head. The Serco holding them stepped out into the less-dim light around the corridor, moving slowly and keeping the pistols leveled at Samwise as he cross-stepped towards them. “And you, Mister… Samwise is it? Very impolite trying to stab me from behind earlier, luckily for you at that moment it was more efficient to initialize a feign death implant component than be drawn in into another firefight. I’m in a hurry, you see.” Okada gave a small smirk.
Samwise had immediately summoned his inner Chi reserves to generate another psychic shield around him and his ward, and drawn his SMG level with Okada. He sat in a strong stance, left fist extended as a focus for maintaining his shield while his weapon tracked Okada precisely. “No closer, Serco. This Itani is mine.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” a third voice spoke from behind Okada.
Okada whirled and put his back to the opposite wall of the corridor, spreading his arms to aim at two targets now, right arm seady on Samwise, left arm aiming at… Lysander.
“Didn’t you just leave this party?” Okada growled. His serco ocular implants were more than capable of tracking two targets at once, which he was doing now with a high degree of accuracy since he noticed the dead-drop charge on Lysander, who was otherwise unarmed.
“Good. You noticed.” Lysander said. “If this charge registers any sudden shocks to my bodily functions, physical or… otherwise…” as he looked at Samwise, “it will explode and kill all of us and leave quite a mess for the Xang Xi cleanup crew, not that the three of you haven’t done a good job of that already.”
“What do you want, rogue?” Samwise demanded, eyes still focused on Okada but speaking to Lysander sharply.
“Sadly, I want what the rest of you want, which is our friend LeberMac, here.” Lysander said, matter of factly, “For no other reason that there’s recently been a rather hefty bounty placed on his head that would help the Bractus Freedom Foundation quite a bit.”
“You jackholes are my FRIENDS?” LeberMac chimed in, “I don’t remember any of you but I have to admit the big guy sounds kind of… familiar. I can’t place my finger on it.”
“It appears we are at an impass, then.” A fourth voice spoke from behind Samwise. Asteroth, wearing full stealth battlearmor hovered sliently behind them all. Samwise and Okada switched targets several times, Lysander’s thumb twitched over his detonator, and the multiple antipersonnel launchers in Asteroth’s armor tracked all three targets.
We have other problems than each other at the moment,” Asteroth said, “Right now, with this suit’s passive sensors, I am tracking several heavily-armed search teams making their way down to this position using active motion sensors, they will undoubtedly assume we are part of an assault team and adopt a shoot-first-ask questions later policy. I have a modified Centaur Mk III, magnetically sealed to the hull, 50 or so yards behind me, we can all escape that way through the umbilical if we can work together for a few minutes to extricate ourselves from this mess. Lastly, I believe that there’s still the matter of the android.”
“Nope, I took care of that little… problem earlier.” Okada said as he lowered his pistols gingerly and switched targets to just Samwise and Asteroth. Lysander’s itchy thumb backed off from the detonator, and Samwise holstered the SMG but kept his shield up for the moment.
“I’m afraid that I’ve been tracking it as we wasted time here talking,” Asteroth said. “It is now between us and my ship, which presents a problem. My scans indicate that, while it is indeed heavily damaged, it is still a threat, not to mention that any firefight now will bring the search teams down upon all of us. In fact, it is approaching combat range quickly. Prepare yourselves!”
MysticBot’s vocalizers had been damaged, but it was able to process the commands that vskye had remotely dialed into it. In a grating cackle it spat “LeeebeeeeerrrrMaaaac…. Come out come out wherever…ver…ver…ver…ver...<click> you are…” It held a katana with its good arm, the tip of the blade scratched the floor and left a small trail of sparks among the puddles of synthfluid that leaked from its broken and burned servos. “I’m sorry… Sir… but new priority overrides state that you are to be eliminated.. ted… ted… ted… ted <click> you WORTHLESS DRUNKEN EXCUSE FOR A PIRATE! DIE TRAITOR!” It let loose its last barrage of antipersonnel heatseeking darts, but due to miscalibrations they tracked wide and smashed a large hole in the wall next to the “Do Not Disturb” sign. Everyone hit the floor, and in the dust could be heard coughing and sputtering.
“What. The. HELL?!?” someone screamed from the room. There was a brief commotion and a swarthy and heavily tattooed pirate stuck his head out of the blast hole. “Can’t anyone read anymore?” Rin screamed as he stomped out into the hallway, packing heat and ready to shoot someone right in the face for interrupting his sleep.
MysticBot’s bright green laser lance shot through the cloud of red-lit blast debris dust inches from his face, cutting off his tirade while he took cover back in his room, squatting behind the blast damage.
“Hey Rin.” Samwise said, shielding a panicked LeberMac from the merciless fire coming from MysticBot. “Lend a hand?”
“Sure.” Rin Ganborro charged up his blaster and set it to fullauto. He leaned around the corner of the blast hole and mashed the trigger, sending rapidpulse neutron blasts through the torso of MysticBot.
At the same time, Okada sent a rain of fire through the android’s skull while Asteroth activated an efficient localized EM pulse that scrambled the bot’s dying programming. The group assembled around the smoking pile of robot. Okada looked at the bot and then used his boots to crush the head of the robot into a pancake.
“We have to go. Now.” Asteroth said, and led the way back to his ship, his suit’s glow-lighting illuminating the way while projecting a live scenario map showing their precarious tactical position. The XangXi teams were closing in on their position quickly, and the group of unlikely temporary allies looked at each other and proceeded to follow.
“I don’t haveta go nowhere with you idiots.” Rin said. Just then, a blaster bolt impacted on the ground near him, coming from deeper down the corridor, accompanied by the sounds of running military boots. He changed his mind quickly, seeing as his rest was interrupted anyway. “Hold on! I’m comin! He grabbed his remote detonator plus a few other things from his stateroom and bounded down the corridor after the others, dodging blaster fire from the approaching XangXi tactical team.
He dove through the umbilical as Lysander reported up to Asteroth, “He’s in.” The Centaur broke the seal and launched away. Rin pressed the detonation trigger and made pursuit by XangXi temporarily impossible by yet another explosion. He grinned and walked up to the bridge, the last one to enter. The group assembled on the bridge as Asteroth smoothly initiated a random jump sequence that put them in an empty sector of Latos space.
The blackness of space floated outside the viewports of Asteroth’s modified cargo vessel. Asteroth, Samwise, Lysander, Okada and Rin all sat in a tense circle around LeberMac. Obviously a little unnerved by their stares, LeberMac fiddled with his flag and asked “So… anybody want to tell me who I am, who you people are, and what we’re doing blasting our way out of a space station?”
Well, that was certainly a good question. His head hurt quite a bit, he seemed to remember running somewhere with a crowd and then falling face first into a leafy planting pot, then a lot of loud noise along with being dragged somewhere, then more loud noises and being dragged some more to this place, which was nice because it was quieter. It was kind of hard to breathe, and everything looked dark red, and he had forgotten the question. LeberMac struggled to get up and flailed about a little bit, leaning on the corridor’s wall for support. “I’m shorry, mister…ah…”
“Samwise.” The pirate said. “Call me Sam.”
“Mrphf…Okay,” LeberMac said flatly, “Whawwaz yer question?”
“I need to know who you are, and why I’m here on this station risking my ass to get you off it.” Samwise quipped, linking his arm under LeberMac’s shoulder and helping him along down the hallway, which was much better then dragging and carrying him. LeberMac motioned to stop after they had passed a few more doorways, and he slumped down heavily outside a somewhat more well-lit door that had a glowing “Do Not Disturb” sign on it.
“Okay, welp, it seems that I canna… really ‘member what my name is, anni certainly dunno where I am. Why ish everything sho blurry?” LeberMac spouted.
A deep voice echoed out of the shadows, “Because you’re a filthy degenerate drunk, LeberMac.” The words were followed by twin blaster pistols that glinted redly in the station’s emergency lighting, pointed at Samwise’s head. The Serco holding them stepped out into the less-dim light around the corridor, moving slowly and keeping the pistols leveled at Samwise as he cross-stepped towards them. “And you, Mister… Samwise is it? Very impolite trying to stab me from behind earlier, luckily for you at that moment it was more efficient to initialize a feign death implant component than be drawn in into another firefight. I’m in a hurry, you see.” Okada gave a small smirk.
Samwise had immediately summoned his inner Chi reserves to generate another psychic shield around him and his ward, and drawn his SMG level with Okada. He sat in a strong stance, left fist extended as a focus for maintaining his shield while his weapon tracked Okada precisely. “No closer, Serco. This Itani is mine.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” a third voice spoke from behind Okada.
Okada whirled and put his back to the opposite wall of the corridor, spreading his arms to aim at two targets now, right arm seady on Samwise, left arm aiming at… Lysander.
“Didn’t you just leave this party?” Okada growled. His serco ocular implants were more than capable of tracking two targets at once, which he was doing now with a high degree of accuracy since he noticed the dead-drop charge on Lysander, who was otherwise unarmed.
“Good. You noticed.” Lysander said. “If this charge registers any sudden shocks to my bodily functions, physical or… otherwise…” as he looked at Samwise, “it will explode and kill all of us and leave quite a mess for the Xang Xi cleanup crew, not that the three of you haven’t done a good job of that already.”
“What do you want, rogue?” Samwise demanded, eyes still focused on Okada but speaking to Lysander sharply.
“Sadly, I want what the rest of you want, which is our friend LeberMac, here.” Lysander said, matter of factly, “For no other reason that there’s recently been a rather hefty bounty placed on his head that would help the Bractus Freedom Foundation quite a bit.”
“You jackholes are my FRIENDS?” LeberMac chimed in, “I don’t remember any of you but I have to admit the big guy sounds kind of… familiar. I can’t place my finger on it.”
“It appears we are at an impass, then.” A fourth voice spoke from behind Samwise. Asteroth, wearing full stealth battlearmor hovered sliently behind them all. Samwise and Okada switched targets several times, Lysander’s thumb twitched over his detonator, and the multiple antipersonnel launchers in Asteroth’s armor tracked all three targets.
We have other problems than each other at the moment,” Asteroth said, “Right now, with this suit’s passive sensors, I am tracking several heavily-armed search teams making their way down to this position using active motion sensors, they will undoubtedly assume we are part of an assault team and adopt a shoot-first-ask questions later policy. I have a modified Centaur Mk III, magnetically sealed to the hull, 50 or so yards behind me, we can all escape that way through the umbilical if we can work together for a few minutes to extricate ourselves from this mess. Lastly, I believe that there’s still the matter of the android.”
“Nope, I took care of that little… problem earlier.” Okada said as he lowered his pistols gingerly and switched targets to just Samwise and Asteroth. Lysander’s itchy thumb backed off from the detonator, and Samwise holstered the SMG but kept his shield up for the moment.
“I’m afraid that I’ve been tracking it as we wasted time here talking,” Asteroth said. “It is now between us and my ship, which presents a problem. My scans indicate that, while it is indeed heavily damaged, it is still a threat, not to mention that any firefight now will bring the search teams down upon all of us. In fact, it is approaching combat range quickly. Prepare yourselves!”
MysticBot’s vocalizers had been damaged, but it was able to process the commands that vskye had remotely dialed into it. In a grating cackle it spat “LeeebeeeeerrrrMaaaac…. Come out come out wherever…ver…ver…ver…ver...<click> you are…” It held a katana with its good arm, the tip of the blade scratched the floor and left a small trail of sparks among the puddles of synthfluid that leaked from its broken and burned servos. “I’m sorry… Sir… but new priority overrides state that you are to be eliminated.. ted… ted… ted… ted <click> you WORTHLESS DRUNKEN EXCUSE FOR A PIRATE! DIE TRAITOR!” It let loose its last barrage of antipersonnel heatseeking darts, but due to miscalibrations they tracked wide and smashed a large hole in the wall next to the “Do Not Disturb” sign. Everyone hit the floor, and in the dust could be heard coughing and sputtering.
“What. The. HELL?!?” someone screamed from the room. There was a brief commotion and a swarthy and heavily tattooed pirate stuck his head out of the blast hole. “Can’t anyone read anymore?” Rin screamed as he stomped out into the hallway, packing heat and ready to shoot someone right in the face for interrupting his sleep.
MysticBot’s bright green laser lance shot through the cloud of red-lit blast debris dust inches from his face, cutting off his tirade while he took cover back in his room, squatting behind the blast damage.
“Hey Rin.” Samwise said, shielding a panicked LeberMac from the merciless fire coming from MysticBot. “Lend a hand?”
“Sure.” Rin Ganborro charged up his blaster and set it to fullauto. He leaned around the corner of the blast hole and mashed the trigger, sending rapidpulse neutron blasts through the torso of MysticBot.
At the same time, Okada sent a rain of fire through the android’s skull while Asteroth activated an efficient localized EM pulse that scrambled the bot’s dying programming. The group assembled around the smoking pile of robot. Okada looked at the bot and then used his boots to crush the head of the robot into a pancake.
“We have to go. Now.” Asteroth said, and led the way back to his ship, his suit’s glow-lighting illuminating the way while projecting a live scenario map showing their precarious tactical position. The XangXi teams were closing in on their position quickly, and the group of unlikely temporary allies looked at each other and proceeded to follow.
“I don’t haveta go nowhere with you idiots.” Rin said. Just then, a blaster bolt impacted on the ground near him, coming from deeper down the corridor, accompanied by the sounds of running military boots. He changed his mind quickly, seeing as his rest was interrupted anyway. “Hold on! I’m comin! He grabbed his remote detonator plus a few other things from his stateroom and bounded down the corridor after the others, dodging blaster fire from the approaching XangXi tactical team.
He dove through the umbilical as Lysander reported up to Asteroth, “He’s in.” The Centaur broke the seal and launched away. Rin pressed the detonation trigger and made pursuit by XangXi temporarily impossible by yet another explosion. He grinned and walked up to the bridge, the last one to enter. The group assembled on the bridge as Asteroth smoothly initiated a random jump sequence that put them in an empty sector of Latos space.
The blackness of space floated outside the viewports of Asteroth’s modified cargo vessel. Asteroth, Samwise, Lysander, Okada and Rin all sat in a tense circle around LeberMac. Obviously a little unnerved by their stares, LeberMac fiddled with his flag and asked “So… anybody want to tell me who I am, who you people are, and what we’re doing blasting our way out of a space station?”
Samwise9: ((OOC: sorry if I didn't word it clearly enough, but did you miss the part where I shanked you in the head?))
Okada: I had not noticed that
Typical Serco.
Okada: I had not noticed that
Typical Serco.
((OOC: Samwise, sorry if I didn't word it clearly enough, but did you miss the part where I declared that Okada has self repairing cybernetic organs?))
Rin's gonna win. I know it.
((ryan: Did I say anything about him dying? All I mentioned was lots of pain and enough of a distraction to sneak by. MysticBot did pretty much the same thing to him in your post...it didn't kill him, but it temporarily incapacitated him. That's all I was going for. I just found it sort of weird he made no mention of it.))
[As I said, I didn't even see the post. It must have been posted in between my scans of the page
[I'm just glad the plot threads are all connected now, it was getting a little crazy]
[I'm just glad the plot threads are all connected now, it was getting a little crazy]
Exuberance! Another Whytee original!
I deeply regret that I did not leave a closing comment for "When it rains, it pours" before it fell to the second page on account of my not visiting the VO forums very often as of late, especially since he made such heavy (and wonderfully backhanded) use of my character and my defunct UIT nationalist guild. He even left me with such a great roleplaying reason why I'm not currently in-game, which I think is fantastic. Although absent, I live on in oblique references in the stories of others.
But enough about me, this story is about LeberMac, and anything involving dear, inebriated leebs is destined for hilarity and greatness. This promises to be a most entertaining read, and I like what I see so far.
And as for my usual brand of rambling in-character non sequitur commentary:
"If I'm not mistaken, and I don't believe that I am, that Xang Xi station was using the prototype artificial wormhole generator equipment that we developed under the auspices of PROJECT SUNDIVER. I had previously thought that all equipment associated with that project had been mothballed when the UIT Senate Appropriations Committee pulled the plug (having failed to meet the intended design goals on account of unforeseen engineering limitations). I guess that somebody decided that it would be a shame if all the trillions of credits we pissed away on that particular venture just went to waste, and auctioned off the whole kit and kaboodle (with or without approval from the proper channels is anyone's guess).
I have to admit, repurposing it as a power supply was a rather inventive use of a synthetic wormhole with an effective aperture less than a centimeter in diameter. Shame that the array has been irreparably damaged; I don't foresee Xang Xi getting a replacement for such uniquely experimental hardware anytime soon."
I deeply regret that I did not leave a closing comment for "When it rains, it pours" before it fell to the second page on account of my not visiting the VO forums very often as of late, especially since he made such heavy (and wonderfully backhanded) use of my character and my defunct UIT nationalist guild. He even left me with such a great roleplaying reason why I'm not currently in-game, which I think is fantastic. Although absent, I live on in oblique references in the stories of others.
But enough about me, this story is about LeberMac, and anything involving dear, inebriated leebs is destined for hilarity and greatness. This promises to be a most entertaining read, and I like what I see so far.
And as for my usual brand of rambling in-character non sequitur commentary:
"If I'm not mistaken, and I don't believe that I am, that Xang Xi station was using the prototype artificial wormhole generator equipment that we developed under the auspices of PROJECT SUNDIVER. I had previously thought that all equipment associated with that project had been mothballed when the UIT Senate Appropriations Committee pulled the plug (having failed to meet the intended design goals on account of unforeseen engineering limitations). I guess that somebody decided that it would be a shame if all the trillions of credits we pissed away on that particular venture just went to waste, and auctioned off the whole kit and kaboodle (with or without approval from the proper channels is anyone's guess).
I have to admit, repurposing it as a power supply was a rather inventive use of a synthetic wormhole with an effective aperture less than a centimeter in diameter. Shame that the array has been irreparably damaged; I don't foresee Xang Xi getting a replacement for such uniquely experimental hardware anytime soon."
Okada's eyes scanned his "companions". He still had a mission to complete, and that was top priority. Although Lebermac doesn't even remember who he was, any data that he could get from him was temporarily lost. The fun part of the mission was over, that android is likely the only worthy adversary he'll battle for quite some time. Then reality set in, that station is in shambles and his superiors are definitely going to debrief him on that. Okada still wasn't entirely sure what was going on, after all the battles and chaos he still knew nothing of tequilaria.
"I need information, if the pirate wants to take him after I get the information I need I have no problem with that." Okada broke the silence and the others turned to him, obviously very uneasy about his presence in such confined space. Lebermac looked at Okada, then to Samwise, then Lysander. "Bringing back the prisoner himself isn't all that necessary, and seeing as we're obviously going to have to come to some agreement on the matter. But first we need to figure out how to get his memory back."
Lysander immediately straightened up, "No one said I have to make a deal with you! I don't even need his memory to be back to get the bounty!" The rest of the crew broke out in an uproar, each arguing their claim over Lebermac. He sat there in the middle of the verbal barrage, feeling like he was on the auction block.
Lebermac lowered his head to the floor, obviously stressed over the whole ordeal. He waved his flag a little, then finally snapped and started screaming.
"I need information, if the pirate wants to take him after I get the information I need I have no problem with that." Okada broke the silence and the others turned to him, obviously very uneasy about his presence in such confined space. Lebermac looked at Okada, then to Samwise, then Lysander. "Bringing back the prisoner himself isn't all that necessary, and seeing as we're obviously going to have to come to some agreement on the matter. But first we need to figure out how to get his memory back."
Lysander immediately straightened up, "No one said I have to make a deal with you! I don't even need his memory to be back to get the bounty!" The rest of the crew broke out in an uproar, each arguing their claim over Lebermac. He sat there in the middle of the verbal barrage, feeling like he was on the auction block.
Lebermac lowered his head to the floor, obviously stressed over the whole ordeal. He waved his flag a little, then finally snapped and started screaming.
"EVERYONE, SHUT THE FUCK UP." Sam yelled. "OBVIOUSLY, we have reached an impasse. We all want this guy for different purposes. You want him for the money, you want him for information, I want him because...I'm not even sure at this point. REGARDLESS.... It would appear only one of us can have him. And unless you're all willing to sit down for a few rounds of Texas Hold'Em, the only fair solution I see here is slugging it out. One on one matches of unarmed combat, tournament style, until we have a clear victor. Now I know what you're all thinking: 'Won't this turn out to be like Karun and Oernon?' Well, I have thought of that...and I think I've come up with a good enough solution to prevent this.... Any sort of suspected trickery or interference from any party...." Sam pulled out his derringer and pressed it against Leber's temple, eliciting a whimper. "Then nobody gets him. Does that sound fair?"
"Lets not be rash..." Lysander sighed. "... fact is, if Leebs doesn't even know who he is, he cant be guilty of what he's wanted for. I can't in good consciousness turns him over for an execution . Now... Okada, what if... and I'm just tossin ideas out here. What if Sammy uses some funky Tani mind reading hippie junk to gets what you need. I'll even toss ina bonus, what I was after."
Okada thought for a moment.
"I'll be moniterin Sams vitals, gotta make sure he speaks the truth, but yeah... I guess that could work."
Lysander turned to Samwise.
"Great, now... yer FAMY, that makes you an ally of the Bractus Liberation Front. I'm quite certain my ally wouldn't want me to go empty handed... so, what do you say to half the bounty on Leebs. Call it a fee for services rendered... all the chaos that made it so we all got outta there in mostly one piece. And you gets to rescue him"
Samwise affected a look that would have done Eo proud.
"That sounds doable." He said... just wanting the whole affair to be over.
Lysander turned to the rest of his erstwhile compatriots... "That just leaves you lot, so... what do we have to do to satisfy your needs, it's to rare for everyone to win... and I say we grabs the opportunity to for stall our deaths until such a time as they won't lead to more questions than answers. Also, Leebs smells like cat urine... I don't want my last olfactory augmented sense to be the over whelming stench of cat urine."
He turned from the group and reached into his pocket retrieving a Bractan pipe, sat back and waited for what he was certain would be either unreasonable, weird or entertaining demands.
Okada thought for a moment.
"I'll be moniterin Sams vitals, gotta make sure he speaks the truth, but yeah... I guess that could work."
Lysander turned to Samwise.
"Great, now... yer FAMY, that makes you an ally of the Bractus Liberation Front. I'm quite certain my ally wouldn't want me to go empty handed... so, what do you say to half the bounty on Leebs. Call it a fee for services rendered... all the chaos that made it so we all got outta there in mostly one piece. And you gets to rescue him"
Samwise affected a look that would have done Eo proud.
"That sounds doable." He said... just wanting the whole affair to be over.
Lysander turned to the rest of his erstwhile compatriots... "That just leaves you lot, so... what do we have to do to satisfy your needs, it's to rare for everyone to win... and I say we grabs the opportunity to for stall our deaths until such a time as they won't lead to more questions than answers. Also, Leebs smells like cat urine... I don't want my last olfactory augmented sense to be the over whelming stench of cat urine."
He turned from the group and reached into his pocket retrieving a Bractan pipe, sat back and waited for what he was certain would be either unreasonable, weird or entertaining demands.
"What I need," grouched Rin, "is for people to stop waking me up when I'm sleeping! I even snuck into the medical bay at the Orion station the other day, thinking 'oh, this is a recovery room, so the doctors should be enforcing quiet!' And what did I get for my troubles? Some inconsiderate slob who just would. not. stop. COUGHING all night long! And then in the morning when I went to complain to the nurse, she called security and they tried to stab me with needles! I ain't no druggie! I told them, I said, 'I don't want your freebies. I ain't into that stuff, so stop trying to hook me on it!' I had to exercise my right to blast holes in morons just to get outta there, and then that asshole of a station manager started babbling something about impounding my Corvult to pay for the damage when I complained to him! Okay, so fighting my way out of there after that and escaping in a ship I stole fresh from their production lines was kind of fun, but come on! What's a guy gotta do around here to get a good night's sleep!?"
"Er, have you tried just flying out into empty space with an Atlas and setting up a cot in your cargo hold?" suggested Samwise.
"I... oh. Yeah, that's a good idea. Yeah! Thanks!"
Rin fell silent as he pondered the best way to go about stealing an Atlas from somebody. And a cot. Hmm, that sounded pretty sketchy though. A moth would have more space, room for more interesting stuff.... As the wheels in his head began their mad gyrations, his eyes took on a glazed look. Rin did not notice as the others agreed to set aside a few hundred credits of the bounty money to buy him a used Atlas and a new cot, and maybe some earplugs for good measure.
"Er, have you tried just flying out into empty space with an Atlas and setting up a cot in your cargo hold?" suggested Samwise.
"I... oh. Yeah, that's a good idea. Yeah! Thanks!"
Rin fell silent as he pondered the best way to go about stealing an Atlas from somebody. And a cot. Hmm, that sounded pretty sketchy though. A moth would have more space, room for more interesting stuff.... As the wheels in his head began their mad gyrations, his eyes took on a glazed look. Rin did not notice as the others agreed to set aside a few hundred credits of the bounty money to buy him a used Atlas and a new cot, and maybe some earplugs for good measure.
Asteroth liked well-planned and especially well-executed special operations missions. However, this one was turning out to be the mother of all fuck-ups. He had known that something was wrong when he landed on the outer hull of the station, and that had, fortunately, induced him to wear the full stealth combat suit that had enabled him to find and extricate Lebermac. And all these other unsavoury characters as an added bonus.
This had unfortunately turned into the crappiest form of Mexican standoff. Everyone wanted a piece of Lebermac, for their own reasons. One of the Tani apparently wanted to protect him, another wanted to interrogate him, and the Serco special operative apparently had some mission from back home in Sercoland. As for the pirate; Asteroth considered shooting him with a stungun and help him on the way to sleep. Or maybe a real gun; that would solve his problem on a permanent scale. Asteroth remembered his mission parameters and chuckled, the effect being roughly as pleasant as someone raking a series of chalk sticks across a blackboard.
"Gents, I believe we can figure something out."
His mission had been to deliver Lebermac. Intact if possible, but anything above dead would suffice. The three men with weapons looked at his visored helmet. Asteroth opened the cargo doors and allowed the atmosphere to plummet out into space with enough force to eject his five "guests" into the slipstream of his fusion drive. Nothing happened. He triggered the cargo door again.
Okada grinned and shook his head slowly.
"Nice try mate. But I took the liberty of installing a small override when we boarded."
Asteroth's visor slid up smoothly and his frown became apparent.
"Can't blame a man for trying.” His frown turned into a scowl, “so, where do we stand? I need Mr. Lebermac for a business transaction in Valent space. Frankly, I do not care what he knows or doesn't know, but I know for a certain that I shall be delivering him."
Samwise pouted and shook his head.
"I can't allow Lebermac to be captured. It is against the Itani ethos."
“That leaves us on the opposite ends of what must be done Sam,” Asteroth said, the threat implicit in his voice and stance. Weapons were raised slightly, but the Mexican standoff didn't evolve one iota. Each operative was running through scenarios in their respective heads and systems, trying to see how they could gain an edge that would allow their particular mission to succeed.
Lebermac, who had decided that now was as good a time as ever, rudely interrupted the silence, to get rid of whatever counted for stomach contents. The vile fluid that had once been the driving factor of Lebermac's kingdom, but was now a vitriolic mixture of stomach acids, tic-tac and TehKilla, spattered across the cargo bay's floor and filled the room with a stench that almost overpowered the stench of urine. But only almost. Asteroth's visor slid down and covered his face, and in particular his olfactory apparatus, again.
The smoke from Lysander’s pipe had now almost covered his head in a cloud of grey, and he waved it away before turning back to the group.
"Screw this. For this to work out, we are going to have to work together," Lysander said. "And I might just have a plan for it. It requires us to be bold, but if it works, I reckon we can have both bonuses as well as keep Lebermac from being captured. Okada, I need to know how well you can emulate an Itani, especially Lebermac."
This had unfortunately turned into the crappiest form of Mexican standoff. Everyone wanted a piece of Lebermac, for their own reasons. One of the Tani apparently wanted to protect him, another wanted to interrogate him, and the Serco special operative apparently had some mission from back home in Sercoland. As for the pirate; Asteroth considered shooting him with a stungun and help him on the way to sleep. Or maybe a real gun; that would solve his problem on a permanent scale. Asteroth remembered his mission parameters and chuckled, the effect being roughly as pleasant as someone raking a series of chalk sticks across a blackboard.
"Gents, I believe we can figure something out."
His mission had been to deliver Lebermac. Intact if possible, but anything above dead would suffice. The three men with weapons looked at his visored helmet. Asteroth opened the cargo doors and allowed the atmosphere to plummet out into space with enough force to eject his five "guests" into the slipstream of his fusion drive. Nothing happened. He triggered the cargo door again.
Okada grinned and shook his head slowly.
"Nice try mate. But I took the liberty of installing a small override when we boarded."
Asteroth's visor slid up smoothly and his frown became apparent.
"Can't blame a man for trying.” His frown turned into a scowl, “so, where do we stand? I need Mr. Lebermac for a business transaction in Valent space. Frankly, I do not care what he knows or doesn't know, but I know for a certain that I shall be delivering him."
Samwise pouted and shook his head.
"I can't allow Lebermac to be captured. It is against the Itani ethos."
“That leaves us on the opposite ends of what must be done Sam,” Asteroth said, the threat implicit in his voice and stance. Weapons were raised slightly, but the Mexican standoff didn't evolve one iota. Each operative was running through scenarios in their respective heads and systems, trying to see how they could gain an edge that would allow their particular mission to succeed.
Lebermac, who had decided that now was as good a time as ever, rudely interrupted the silence, to get rid of whatever counted for stomach contents. The vile fluid that had once been the driving factor of Lebermac's kingdom, but was now a vitriolic mixture of stomach acids, tic-tac and TehKilla, spattered across the cargo bay's floor and filled the room with a stench that almost overpowered the stench of urine. But only almost. Asteroth's visor slid down and covered his face, and in particular his olfactory apparatus, again.
The smoke from Lysander’s pipe had now almost covered his head in a cloud of grey, and he waved it away before turning back to the group.
"Screw this. For this to work out, we are going to have to work together," Lysander said. "And I might just have a plan for it. It requires us to be bold, but if it works, I reckon we can have both bonuses as well as keep Lebermac from being captured. Okada, I need to know how well you can emulate an Itani, especially Lebermac."
Okada looked at Lysander and did not like where this was going. It might not matter however, during the... "discussion" Okada was able to reconnect with SkyCommand through his neural uplink. He sat in on the debate all the while communicating their position and current company. Now SkyCommand was caught up on the day's events, at least a summary of them. Okada requested a covert vulture squadron to intercept the centaur. However he still needed to maintain his feigned cooperation, and yet resistant.
"Do I look like an alcoholic? Or do you think I'm some terrorist or mercenary who just does whatever he wants like you? I still have a nation I serve, and a home to go to unlike yourself." Rather venomously said, Lysander was not amused. Tell tale signs of anger were on his face, but he kept at his pipe.
"If anything I can solve most of our problems by arresting you and interrogating Lebermac." The others suddenly perked up. "That we I get what I want, and you're out of the equation, freeing up the other parties' demands." Okada noticed he captured the others' attentions, good. He just needed to distract them long enough for that squadron to mobilize and intercept. Asteroth had shown his hand already and Rin wasn't really supposed to be here. More importantly Okada had gained control of the cargo bay doors.
"You're rather smug and arrogant aren't you? I could just blow us all up if you try to arrest me." Lysander snarled back at Okada. It was true, this was still a factor to be considered. Any attempt to bring Lysander he would blow the whole ship apart. That is if he thought he was definitely unable to escape by other means than way of death. It didn't really matter though, as long as Okada could keep stirring the pot while relaying their position to SkyCommand. Arresting Lysander wasn't really priority, Okada had a specific mission.
Asteroth chimed in, "So you get information from Lebermac, and take Lysander with you? That would just leave it between me and Sam..." Samwise looked toward the pilot's seat at Asteroth, clearly giving the arrangement some thought. Okada was grinning on the inside, the dissent just had to last a while longer.
Lysander immediately fired back at the group, "You forget I can kill us all! I have no problem taking us all to the void." Lebermac was clearly suffering from stress induced illness, hungover to boot. Any information Lebermac had could be extracted from him in Serco Space. Whatever this Tequilaria was, could easily be mined out of his skull. Interrogation wasn't even required technically speaking.
The Vulture hit squad was about to jump in sector, they were all in Odia by this time. SkyCommand had covert ops based out of one of the stations in Odia, making interception effortless. It was for this reason that Okada hatched the plan in the first place. The squad was accompanied by a warthog, ready to pick up Okada and Lebermac once they "departed".
Asteroth had even reduced speed until they could come to some consensus. Okada got the confirmation, the Vultures immediately jumped into the sector. Asteroth's radar lit up red, 3 unaligned black vultured and a warthog with the same credentials jumped into the sector and in range. Asteroth tried hailing them, hoping that they were the more cooperative kind of pirates. The kind that accept payment. The others ran towards the cockpit, leaving lebermac and Okada behind.
"Pirates! They aren't responding either!" Asteroth shouted in desperation, the vultures were closing in fast. Okada grinned, while the others were frantic. "Maybe I should try and slow them down..." the Vultures moved into weapons range and Asteroth engaged. They were flying in formation, with the warthog staying back but steady pursuit. The first Vulture cut it's speed and fired neutrons in bursts, laying down suppression fire to distract Asteroth. The other two, without so much as letting off the throttle and in perfect harmony, flew by Asteroth. Asteroth began firing his gatling turret towards the vulture to his front. The vulture didn't bother to engage, just staying back to distract.
The other two vultures immediately flanked Asteroth, laying down fire on the ship. The ship banged around as the blaster fire pummeled the hull of the centaur. This was it, Okada pulled out a flashbang. With sly execution he pulled the pin and rolled it toward the crowd and they almost instinctively turned to see what had just rolled across the cargo bay floor. The expressions on their face were priceless, Okada took cover from the flashbang as it detonated and blinded his prey. Lebermac too was blinded, Okada ran over to him and literally picked him up off the ground and ran towards the back of the cargo bay.
The others were groaning and cursing Okada. "Sorry boys, I don't have time for this hippy council crap" He threw Lebermac in a pod and climbed in the other. He took one look back at the men he just deceived, they clearly realized the trap by now. If they were smart, they would try to get out with their lives and not worry about him making off with the prize. Okada shut the pod and remotely activated the cargo bay doors to open with his override. Samwise gained some of his vision back and saw the cargo doors about to open, obviously about to kill them all. He immediately grabbed a small EF crystal shard out of his pocket and put up a barrier just large enough to squeeze the cargo bay walls and just fast enough to save everyone on board.
Asteroth immediately started turboing away to escape the vultures wrath. He knew that they were Serco and were only toying with him before. But now that Okada escaped with Lebermac, they would surely try and kill him. With the pods several hundred meters behind the centaur, the warthog flew in and gracefully without fear picked the two pods up. The vultures rained fire down on the centaur as it tried to escape. The hull integrity was critical, but the energy based weapons of the vultures took their toll on the ships' powercells. The squadron fell back to the warthog and jumped out of the sector, making their rendezvous with a Trident waiting in an empty sector.
Lebermac was kept locked in the pod, however Okada was immediately released and began exchanging information with the crew. With Okada out of range, the override was no more. Asteroth hastily closed the cargo bay doors and Samwise immediately fell to the ground in a sitting position and dissipating the barrier. "Curse that thieving Serco..." Lysander was furious. Rin was simply bewildered and unsure how he got caught up in this mess. Asteroth was frantically trying to land the ship somewhere safe, he dropped the burning ship down to the Tunguska outpost in the system after jumping away from the battle.
Meanwhile, Okada and the squadron carefulyl docked the Trident to begin their voyage back to the Dominion.
"Do I look like an alcoholic? Or do you think I'm some terrorist or mercenary who just does whatever he wants like you? I still have a nation I serve, and a home to go to unlike yourself." Rather venomously said, Lysander was not amused. Tell tale signs of anger were on his face, but he kept at his pipe.
"If anything I can solve most of our problems by arresting you and interrogating Lebermac." The others suddenly perked up. "That we I get what I want, and you're out of the equation, freeing up the other parties' demands." Okada noticed he captured the others' attentions, good. He just needed to distract them long enough for that squadron to mobilize and intercept. Asteroth had shown his hand already and Rin wasn't really supposed to be here. More importantly Okada had gained control of the cargo bay doors.
"You're rather smug and arrogant aren't you? I could just blow us all up if you try to arrest me." Lysander snarled back at Okada. It was true, this was still a factor to be considered. Any attempt to bring Lysander he would blow the whole ship apart. That is if he thought he was definitely unable to escape by other means than way of death. It didn't really matter though, as long as Okada could keep stirring the pot while relaying their position to SkyCommand. Arresting Lysander wasn't really priority, Okada had a specific mission.
Asteroth chimed in, "So you get information from Lebermac, and take Lysander with you? That would just leave it between me and Sam..." Samwise looked toward the pilot's seat at Asteroth, clearly giving the arrangement some thought. Okada was grinning on the inside, the dissent just had to last a while longer.
Lysander immediately fired back at the group, "You forget I can kill us all! I have no problem taking us all to the void." Lebermac was clearly suffering from stress induced illness, hungover to boot. Any information Lebermac had could be extracted from him in Serco Space. Whatever this Tequilaria was, could easily be mined out of his skull. Interrogation wasn't even required technically speaking.
The Vulture hit squad was about to jump in sector, they were all in Odia by this time. SkyCommand had covert ops based out of one of the stations in Odia, making interception effortless. It was for this reason that Okada hatched the plan in the first place. The squad was accompanied by a warthog, ready to pick up Okada and Lebermac once they "departed".
Asteroth had even reduced speed until they could come to some consensus. Okada got the confirmation, the Vultures immediately jumped into the sector. Asteroth's radar lit up red, 3 unaligned black vultured and a warthog with the same credentials jumped into the sector and in range. Asteroth tried hailing them, hoping that they were the more cooperative kind of pirates. The kind that accept payment. The others ran towards the cockpit, leaving lebermac and Okada behind.
"Pirates! They aren't responding either!" Asteroth shouted in desperation, the vultures were closing in fast. Okada grinned, while the others were frantic. "Maybe I should try and slow them down..." the Vultures moved into weapons range and Asteroth engaged. They were flying in formation, with the warthog staying back but steady pursuit. The first Vulture cut it's speed and fired neutrons in bursts, laying down suppression fire to distract Asteroth. The other two, without so much as letting off the throttle and in perfect harmony, flew by Asteroth. Asteroth began firing his gatling turret towards the vulture to his front. The vulture didn't bother to engage, just staying back to distract.
The other two vultures immediately flanked Asteroth, laying down fire on the ship. The ship banged around as the blaster fire pummeled the hull of the centaur. This was it, Okada pulled out a flashbang. With sly execution he pulled the pin and rolled it toward the crowd and they almost instinctively turned to see what had just rolled across the cargo bay floor. The expressions on their face were priceless, Okada took cover from the flashbang as it detonated and blinded his prey. Lebermac too was blinded, Okada ran over to him and literally picked him up off the ground and ran towards the back of the cargo bay.
The others were groaning and cursing Okada. "Sorry boys, I don't have time for this hippy council crap" He threw Lebermac in a pod and climbed in the other. He took one look back at the men he just deceived, they clearly realized the trap by now. If they were smart, they would try to get out with their lives and not worry about him making off with the prize. Okada shut the pod and remotely activated the cargo bay doors to open with his override. Samwise gained some of his vision back and saw the cargo doors about to open, obviously about to kill them all. He immediately grabbed a small EF crystal shard out of his pocket and put up a barrier just large enough to squeeze the cargo bay walls and just fast enough to save everyone on board.
Asteroth immediately started turboing away to escape the vultures wrath. He knew that they were Serco and were only toying with him before. But now that Okada escaped with Lebermac, they would surely try and kill him. With the pods several hundred meters behind the centaur, the warthog flew in and gracefully without fear picked the two pods up. The vultures rained fire down on the centaur as it tried to escape. The hull integrity was critical, but the energy based weapons of the vultures took their toll on the ships' powercells. The squadron fell back to the warthog and jumped out of the sector, making their rendezvous with a Trident waiting in an empty sector.
Lebermac was kept locked in the pod, however Okada was immediately released and began exchanging information with the crew. With Okada out of range, the override was no more. Asteroth hastily closed the cargo bay doors and Samwise immediately fell to the ground in a sitting position and dissipating the barrier. "Curse that thieving Serco..." Lysander was furious. Rin was simply bewildered and unsure how he got caught up in this mess. Asteroth was frantically trying to land the ship somewhere safe, he dropped the burning ship down to the Tunguska outpost in the system after jumping away from the battle.
Meanwhile, Okada and the squadron carefulyl docked the Trident to begin their voyage back to the Dominion.
"Son of a bitch.... I should've put a bullet in that fucker's head while I still had the chance.... Hold on, I got an idea. I left a Corvus Greyhound back at Epsilon Hold. Asteroth, if you would be so kind as to let me into your ship's console, I can get a remote uplink on it and start chasing him...that is, if it's still in one piece."
Asteroth nodded and unfolded the copilot's seat.
Samwise sat down and wasted no time trying to establish the remote link. After pairing the Centaur's systems with his PDA and a few other keystrokes, he was in. "Alright, let's see.... She's survived, but just barely. Armor integrity is...dismal. Positron blaster is offline. Two Sunflares remaining. Good enough for me. Launching now and plotting course to Latos B6."
The Centaur's controls then became the Greyhound's controls, allowing Sam to fly it as if he were playing a video game. "Minimum safe distance reached. Jumping to B6." The console's screen went black for a second, as it attempted to reacquire the Hound's signal, and then came back to life. "Scanning for targets.... Light frigate, Trident class, squawking Serco. I'd bet my bottom credit that Leber is on that ship. Now let's hope I can pull this off.... Wish me luck."
"Wait...how the hell do you expect to take down a Trident with a beat-up Greyhound and two rockets?" someone piped up. Sam was too concentrated to see who.
"You'll see."
Sam roughly pointed at the Trident and slammed the turbos. The Warthog and Vultures from earlier started pouring out of the docking bay. He was unperturbed by this, tightly focused on the task at hand. Missile turret fire began to chase his battered ship. Now within 750m of the frigate, he loosed his two remaining sunflares. They hit and detonated, but the Trident's shields mostly shrugged it off. What they were not able to shrug off, however, was the impact of a Corvus Greyhound traveling at maximum speed. The ship found its mark, the starboard engine pylon, and completely decimated the shielding. And the swarm of missiles that had been chasing him followed the Hound diligently, hitting the very same spot. The last thing the Hound's now-detached inflight camera saw was the engine separating from its pylon, before cutting to static. Sam breathed a deep sigh of relief and slumped back in his chair.
"Alright, so...they're dead in the water for now. Now what?"
Asteroth nodded and unfolded the copilot's seat.
Samwise sat down and wasted no time trying to establish the remote link. After pairing the Centaur's systems with his PDA and a few other keystrokes, he was in. "Alright, let's see.... She's survived, but just barely. Armor integrity is...dismal. Positron blaster is offline. Two Sunflares remaining. Good enough for me. Launching now and plotting course to Latos B6."
The Centaur's controls then became the Greyhound's controls, allowing Sam to fly it as if he were playing a video game. "Minimum safe distance reached. Jumping to B6." The console's screen went black for a second, as it attempted to reacquire the Hound's signal, and then came back to life. "Scanning for targets.... Light frigate, Trident class, squawking Serco. I'd bet my bottom credit that Leber is on that ship. Now let's hope I can pull this off.... Wish me luck."
"Wait...how the hell do you expect to take down a Trident with a beat-up Greyhound and two rockets?" someone piped up. Sam was too concentrated to see who.
"You'll see."
Sam roughly pointed at the Trident and slammed the turbos. The Warthog and Vultures from earlier started pouring out of the docking bay. He was unperturbed by this, tightly focused on the task at hand. Missile turret fire began to chase his battered ship. Now within 750m of the frigate, he loosed his two remaining sunflares. They hit and detonated, but the Trident's shields mostly shrugged it off. What they were not able to shrug off, however, was the impact of a Corvus Greyhound traveling at maximum speed. The ship found its mark, the starboard engine pylon, and completely decimated the shielding. And the swarm of missiles that had been chasing him followed the Hound diligently, hitting the very same spot. The last thing the Hound's now-detached inflight camera saw was the engine separating from its pylon, before cutting to static. Sam breathed a deep sigh of relief and slumped back in his chair.
"Alright, so...they're dead in the water for now. Now what?"
While that had been going on, Rin had stalked out into the hanger on his own. He was not happy. LeberMac didn't concern him, but he'd be damned if he'd tolerate the use of flashbangs. Flashbangs were the posers of the explosives world. Bright, flashy, and loud, yet the explosion itself was minuscule. They were a disgrace to all things volatile! That Serco needed to be put down. Seriously, what self respecting Serco would use such a puny little thing anyway? That guy must have been one of those undercover types that their government tried to deny existed - more out of shame than a desire to keep their ops secret, Rin suspected.
He shoved some old miner out of his way as he strode through the hanger to one of the many ships he had stockpiled at this particular station. The old fart started spewing vitriol, so Rin fired a warning shot at him. It was definitely a warning shot. There was no way the spots he was still seeing threw off his aim. Nope! Rin holstered his blaster before the onlookers could think his missing was anything but intentional, and continued on his way.
He was utterly unconcerned about the man frantically yelling for a guard. Rin, it so happened, had conned the station manager into selling him his soul a year ago. He didn't believe any of that superstitous crap about souls, but the manager did, and that was what mattered. He could now literally get away with murder here. Well, there were limits. He couldn't get away with going on an all out rampage, but if his blaster happened to misfire and hit somebody now and then, nobody of importance was going to care. Sadly, the price of the guy's soul was to never again enter the facility's residental areas. Also, he was banned from the fancier of the station's restaurants. He didn't mind that part. A man didn't need that many forks unless he intended to stab an entire family with 'em. Actually, that's probably what motivated that particular clause of the contract...
After climbing into his Corvus Greyhound, he signaled his intent to undock by nudging some joker in a Centurion out of his way. Oblivious to the people scrambling out of that errant fighter's new and unintended path, Rin hit the throttle and jetted out of the hanger. As he warmed up his drives for the jump, it occurred to him that he had no idea where his prey was. Oh well. They were Serco. He'd just plot a course for the Helios border station, and if he didn't bump into them along the way he'd terrorize those guys instead. A toaster was a toaster, after all, and if he couldn't kill Okada, he'd just make him responsible for the deaths of others.
He shoved some old miner out of his way as he strode through the hanger to one of the many ships he had stockpiled at this particular station. The old fart started spewing vitriol, so Rin fired a warning shot at him. It was definitely a warning shot. There was no way the spots he was still seeing threw off his aim. Nope! Rin holstered his blaster before the onlookers could think his missing was anything but intentional, and continued on his way.
He was utterly unconcerned about the man frantically yelling for a guard. Rin, it so happened, had conned the station manager into selling him his soul a year ago. He didn't believe any of that superstitous crap about souls, but the manager did, and that was what mattered. He could now literally get away with murder here. Well, there were limits. He couldn't get away with going on an all out rampage, but if his blaster happened to misfire and hit somebody now and then, nobody of importance was going to care. Sadly, the price of the guy's soul was to never again enter the facility's residental areas. Also, he was banned from the fancier of the station's restaurants. He didn't mind that part. A man didn't need that many forks unless he intended to stab an entire family with 'em. Actually, that's probably what motivated that particular clause of the contract...
After climbing into his Corvus Greyhound, he signaled his intent to undock by nudging some joker in a Centurion out of his way. Oblivious to the people scrambling out of that errant fighter's new and unintended path, Rin hit the throttle and jetted out of the hanger. As he warmed up his drives for the jump, it occurred to him that he had no idea where his prey was. Oh well. They were Serco. He'd just plot a course for the Helios border station, and if he didn't bump into them along the way he'd terrorize those guys instead. A toaster was a toaster, after all, and if he couldn't kill Okada, he'd just make him responsible for the deaths of others.
Sam, still in the copilot's seat, glanced over at the sensor log and noticed a new contact. "Small fighter, Warthog class. Corvus Greyhound. Squawking UIT, LAW tags.... Wait a minute. That lazy piece of shit."
Hastily, he typed out a message to the departing Rin. "Hey uh...instead of just fucking off, why not do something helpful, like...I dunno...get the rest of us some fighters or repgun this Centaur? Come on, man."
Hastily, he typed out a message to the departing Rin. "Hey uh...instead of just fucking off, why not do something helpful, like...I dunno...get the rest of us some fighters or repgun this Centaur? Come on, man."
Rin hesitated with his thumb on the button that would initiate the jump out of the sector when his message indicator beeped. Oh, right, those guys he'd left behind playing video games or something. Now they wanted ships. Figures. People always picked the absolute worst times to mooch off of him. Just as he was beginning a hunt, or in the middle of the night, or as he was about to convince their sister to have dinner. He didn't even have time to properly grumble about this! Without giving it much thought, he sent back the access codes for a random assortment of Corvus ships and one or two Orion models that were stashed, told them to take whatever, and blinked out of the sector.
Emerging into the wormhole sector, he quickly aimed for the wormhole, locked the turbo, and kicked back to enjoy a good quality grumbling during the long haul through the asteroid field. Just as he was getting into it, he noted an Ineubis convoy ahead of him that he was rapidly gaining on. He flicked on his cargo scanner and took a peek up their metaphorical skirts. Mmm, they were hauling automated defense systems. Normally he'd hit that. With positrons. Many positrons, and maybe some neutrons for good measure. But for the moment, wholesale slaughter ranked higher on his priority list than looting and plundering. As he tore past them, he imagined he could hear their sighs of relief. He decided to send them a picture of him winking evilly, subtitled "See you on the other side," just to keep them guessing.
With that done, he ripped apart the fabric of reality and emerged in Sedina. Noting nothing of interest, he proceeded across the system. At the wormhole to Latos he found a few duelists he didn't recognize and some Serco drone transports. The transports were heading for the wormhole, same as him, but he was faster. Coming up behind, he went ahead and wrecked the two fragile transports just on principle, ignored the escort, and jumped through the wormhole.
In Latos he found a TPG convoy approaching the wormhole, but they were too far out still to scan, and off in the roids where he didn't want to go. Instead, he swung his ship around and aimed for the nearest patch of empty space, and was gone seconds later.
Emerging at the wormhole to Ukari, Rin reflexively started pointing his ship to that interesting weak point in the fabric of space and time before his mind even registered the burning hulk of a Serco Trident. "Huh, wonder how that happened" he thought. Looking around, he also saw the same Warthog that had spirited away the Serco he was after. It seemed to be hauling ass toward the wormhole. Those same Vultures were there as well. They had been following the Warthog, but peeled off to fly at his Greyhound when he appeared.
Figuring they were trying to delay him from reaching the Warthog and that the Hog contained LeberMac and probably Okada, Rin opted to ignore the Trident and pursue the Warthog. As the Vultures neared, he started making minor course alterations to reduce their odds of hitting him, and otherwise ignored them. He took a few glancing shots and then he was well past. They turned to follow, but he was already a kilometer away before they'd even finished reorienting. Rin was through the wormhole before they could even get up to speed, just a few seconds after his own quarry.
Emerging into the wormhole sector, he quickly aimed for the wormhole, locked the turbo, and kicked back to enjoy a good quality grumbling during the long haul through the asteroid field. Just as he was getting into it, he noted an Ineubis convoy ahead of him that he was rapidly gaining on. He flicked on his cargo scanner and took a peek up their metaphorical skirts. Mmm, they were hauling automated defense systems. Normally he'd hit that. With positrons. Many positrons, and maybe some neutrons for good measure. But for the moment, wholesale slaughter ranked higher on his priority list than looting and plundering. As he tore past them, he imagined he could hear their sighs of relief. He decided to send them a picture of him winking evilly, subtitled "See you on the other side," just to keep them guessing.
With that done, he ripped apart the fabric of reality and emerged in Sedina. Noting nothing of interest, he proceeded across the system. At the wormhole to Latos he found a few duelists he didn't recognize and some Serco drone transports. The transports were heading for the wormhole, same as him, but he was faster. Coming up behind, he went ahead and wrecked the two fragile transports just on principle, ignored the escort, and jumped through the wormhole.
In Latos he found a TPG convoy approaching the wormhole, but they were too far out still to scan, and off in the roids where he didn't want to go. Instead, he swung his ship around and aimed for the nearest patch of empty space, and was gone seconds later.
Emerging at the wormhole to Ukari, Rin reflexively started pointing his ship to that interesting weak point in the fabric of space and time before his mind even registered the burning hulk of a Serco Trident. "Huh, wonder how that happened" he thought. Looking around, he also saw the same Warthog that had spirited away the Serco he was after. It seemed to be hauling ass toward the wormhole. Those same Vultures were there as well. They had been following the Warthog, but peeled off to fly at his Greyhound when he appeared.
Figuring they were trying to delay him from reaching the Warthog and that the Hog contained LeberMac and probably Okada, Rin opted to ignore the Trident and pursue the Warthog. As the Vultures neared, he started making minor course alterations to reduce their odds of hitting him, and otherwise ignored them. He took a few glancing shots and then he was well past. They turned to follow, but he was already a kilometer away before they'd even finished reorienting. Rin was through the wormhole before they could even get up to speed, just a few seconds after his own quarry.
Okada laughed as he saw Rin chasing the dummy warthog. He was watching from the pilot seat of one of the Vultures. Rin must not have noticed the fourth vulture which wasn't present during the capture. Okada broke off the formation, letting the other vultures pursue Rin through the wormhole. He turned his head just enough to see Lebermac shouting and pounding on the door of the pod from the inside. You couldn't hear a thing, the pods were soundproof. It was oddly amusing.
Okada plotted a course for Enistan Orbital, choosing to take the Arta Caelestis way. Enistan Orbital was a BioCom research facility in Dau. BioCom were sympathetic to the Serco and had good relations with the Dominion. BioCom would have the tools and facilities required to probe Lebermac's brain. They wouldn't be bothered reporting it to the Union either. Okada warped through the wormhole and enterred Arta Caelestis, immediately turboing into empty space and jumping to the Dau wormhole. Leber make for the most part gave up on the screaming after realizing no one could hear him. After all, it was just him and Okada.
The vulture hurled it's way towards the Dau wormhole, there was little to no resistance on the way. No one knew where they were going, those pursuing either went the wrong way or were still licking their wounds from the last engagement. This however wasn't cause to rest easy, plenty of time for rest after the mission is over. It had been a long day, leaving a trail of destruction everywhere. It was a wonder Epsilon Hold didn't collapse. He wondered how the whole thing would be presented to the public, not his job or problem however. Okada wasn't a politician, he was a ghost.
Okada entered Dau and found no resistance, Rin was going the wrong way and too fast. However he had likely caught up to the warthog by now and the border guard waiting at the Initros wormhole. That distraction and BioCom's cooperation gave Okada plenty of time. He jumped again with Enistan Orbital in view, it had the usual convoy traffic and station guards flying about. It looked like everything was clear, he grinned as he saw the station hovering lightly over the Enistan. He approached the station and received confirmation of his expedited docking clearance.
***Free to approach, we have a crew standing by to immediately extract the specimen. The dock crew will complete the necessary post flight routine for you, you can proceed with the research team immediately upon arrival.***
The engines in Okada's vulture screamed as he turboed his way towards the station, cutting through convoy traffic. He immediately turned his comms off knowing very well the feedback he was about to receive. Honestly, Okada didn't have time to deal with a bunch of union trader types. The Union-Serco relations were nothing more than an arranged marriage. The average Serco didn't care for them all that much.
The vulture entered the bay, and lightly but hastily touched down. The research team with a few dock workers in tow immediately swarmed the vulture. Okada climbed out of the cockpit and fired a shot in the air, effectively ending the raid of the curious intellectuals. "You need to remember this is my operation! Not some experiment you can fool around with, so I expect the utmost respect and discipline from you all." The scientists nodded and delicately removed the pod containing his Itani captive. The pod was placed on a pallet jack and towed off to the lab. Okada followed, assault rifle resting on his shoulder and pointed in the air.
The gaggle of scientists were all yammering on down the corridor and Lebermac was staring out the windowed door with a frightened look on his face. "I want guards posted outside these doors" Okada ordered as they entered the lab. The pod was opened and Lebermac was immediately restrained, the stench that poured out of the pod was unbearable so it was taken away immediately to be incinerated. They put Lebermac in a medical chair and stared at him intently. He said nothing, but looked back and forth between the scientists with a distraught look on his face. The scientists immediately descended upon him and in a flurry attached about a dozen medical and psychological devices to him.
Okada leaned back against the wall near the door and watched the researchers go to work. Okada held in hand the little flag he found on Lebermac. He looked at it for a few minutes, then immediately remembered the cargo hold he inspected. The booze bottles had "Tequila" branded on them.... the flag said "Tequilaria". "I have a bad feeling about this op all of the sudden..."
One of the scientists looked back at Okada inquisitively. "Hey, before you guys go scarring him for life how about you humor me first." The scientists looked at each other then looked back at Okada.
"Try giving him some tequila... it may jog that memory of his."
Okada plotted a course for Enistan Orbital, choosing to take the Arta Caelestis way. Enistan Orbital was a BioCom research facility in Dau. BioCom were sympathetic to the Serco and had good relations with the Dominion. BioCom would have the tools and facilities required to probe Lebermac's brain. They wouldn't be bothered reporting it to the Union either. Okada warped through the wormhole and enterred Arta Caelestis, immediately turboing into empty space and jumping to the Dau wormhole. Leber make for the most part gave up on the screaming after realizing no one could hear him. After all, it was just him and Okada.
The vulture hurled it's way towards the Dau wormhole, there was little to no resistance on the way. No one knew where they were going, those pursuing either went the wrong way or were still licking their wounds from the last engagement. This however wasn't cause to rest easy, plenty of time for rest after the mission is over. It had been a long day, leaving a trail of destruction everywhere. It was a wonder Epsilon Hold didn't collapse. He wondered how the whole thing would be presented to the public, not his job or problem however. Okada wasn't a politician, he was a ghost.
Okada entered Dau and found no resistance, Rin was going the wrong way and too fast. However he had likely caught up to the warthog by now and the border guard waiting at the Initros wormhole. That distraction and BioCom's cooperation gave Okada plenty of time. He jumped again with Enistan Orbital in view, it had the usual convoy traffic and station guards flying about. It looked like everything was clear, he grinned as he saw the station hovering lightly over the Enistan. He approached the station and received confirmation of his expedited docking clearance.
***Free to approach, we have a crew standing by to immediately extract the specimen. The dock crew will complete the necessary post flight routine for you, you can proceed with the research team immediately upon arrival.***
The engines in Okada's vulture screamed as he turboed his way towards the station, cutting through convoy traffic. He immediately turned his comms off knowing very well the feedback he was about to receive. Honestly, Okada didn't have time to deal with a bunch of union trader types. The Union-Serco relations were nothing more than an arranged marriage. The average Serco didn't care for them all that much.
The vulture entered the bay, and lightly but hastily touched down. The research team with a few dock workers in tow immediately swarmed the vulture. Okada climbed out of the cockpit and fired a shot in the air, effectively ending the raid of the curious intellectuals. "You need to remember this is my operation! Not some experiment you can fool around with, so I expect the utmost respect and discipline from you all." The scientists nodded and delicately removed the pod containing his Itani captive. The pod was placed on a pallet jack and towed off to the lab. Okada followed, assault rifle resting on his shoulder and pointed in the air.
The gaggle of scientists were all yammering on down the corridor and Lebermac was staring out the windowed door with a frightened look on his face. "I want guards posted outside these doors" Okada ordered as they entered the lab. The pod was opened and Lebermac was immediately restrained, the stench that poured out of the pod was unbearable so it was taken away immediately to be incinerated. They put Lebermac in a medical chair and stared at him intently. He said nothing, but looked back and forth between the scientists with a distraught look on his face. The scientists immediately descended upon him and in a flurry attached about a dozen medical and psychological devices to him.
Okada leaned back against the wall near the door and watched the researchers go to work. Okada held in hand the little flag he found on Lebermac. He looked at it for a few minutes, then immediately remembered the cargo hold he inspected. The booze bottles had "Tequila" branded on them.... the flag said "Tequilaria". "I have a bad feeling about this op all of the sudden..."
One of the scientists looked back at Okada inquisitively. "Hey, before you guys go scarring him for life how about you humor me first." The scientists looked at each other then looked back at Okada.
"Try giving him some tequila... it may jog that memory of his."
The scientist looked over to Okada with confusion painted in ten-foot letters across his face before he understood why he should find the single most vile alcoholic beverage known to all of mankind, and by mankind, he was perfectly willing to be pretty lavish with the distinction. He looked back at the cat-piss smelling, vomit-stained and generally dirty Itani pilot before turning back to ask Okada something else.
The question was never asked. Instead, a trio of blasts tore the silence, and by extension of its rather large amount of foamed hydrogen warheads, tore Okada into six pieces. The three warheads had entered his back under his shoulder blades and one on the lower part of his spinal column, tearing him apart like a ragdoll. A meaty thud signalled that the head had now impacted on the floor along with the arms, legs and thrashed torso, and the techs immediately started dodging for cover. Samwise dropped the mirror field and allowed the Serco Infiltration suit to assume a dull red colour to let his two companions see where he was.
"You lying thieving bastard," he sneered at the head and raised his hand to fire another knife-missile into the eye of Okada.
A black-gloved hand appeared on his arm, calming him and stopping the weapons release. Lysander stepped into the room, followed by Asteroth.
"Remember the deal we made Sam." He motioned to Asteroth and let him step over to the disembodied head. The eyes of the head immediately locked on Asteroth’s and he received a laser-triggered signal from Okada.
"How did you..?"
Asteroth allowed the sentence to enter a secure part of his brainpal and removed the three vira that would have allowed Okada to take over his cybernetic enhancements. He sent back on a Special Operations branch encrypted channel, "Apparently, the Tani bastards have some kind of way of tracking each other. You need to get that information back home.,, Brother." He closed the channel and stifled the question that was undoubtedly about to pour in his direction; How the fuck did he know of this frequency? How had they found him? Who was Asteroth? What was Tequilaria goddamnit!
He lifted the head in one hand in front of his own and chuckled. "Yeah, this Serco scum will look good on my mantelpiece."
"We are clear now then?" Lysander asked, his own hands closed around the heavy silenced machinegun he had brought from the ship and had been so helpful in killing the guards outside the chamber.
Asteroth stuffed the head into his utility bag and slowly turned to face the two Itani pilots, ignoring the whimpering techs and the equally whimpering, but less comprehending Lebermac.
"As soon as I have my suit back, you can have Leber. I trust the money will be good, or else I know where you live Lysander."
Lysander nodded and walked over to assist Samwise in de-suiting. The two Itani pilots stepped away from the suit and allowed Asteroth to regain control of it. To be honest, Samwise didn't doubt that he had been in control of it all of the time they had used in on the station, but to be fair, Samwise had not felt any restrictions in the controls. The visor closed over Asteroth's face and he raised his left arm, let a quartet of missiles fly forth to impact on the neck of each of the technicians. The wall were spattered with blood and bone, and the explosions did nothing good at all for the hearing of either of the three Itani in the room. Asteroth threw a mock-salute and turned to leave.
(OOC: Sorry Okada.... :) But you Serco doesn't really need a body to stay alive:) )
The question was never asked. Instead, a trio of blasts tore the silence, and by extension of its rather large amount of foamed hydrogen warheads, tore Okada into six pieces. The three warheads had entered his back under his shoulder blades and one on the lower part of his spinal column, tearing him apart like a ragdoll. A meaty thud signalled that the head had now impacted on the floor along with the arms, legs and thrashed torso, and the techs immediately started dodging for cover. Samwise dropped the mirror field and allowed the Serco Infiltration suit to assume a dull red colour to let his two companions see where he was.
"You lying thieving bastard," he sneered at the head and raised his hand to fire another knife-missile into the eye of Okada.
A black-gloved hand appeared on his arm, calming him and stopping the weapons release. Lysander stepped into the room, followed by Asteroth.
"Remember the deal we made Sam." He motioned to Asteroth and let him step over to the disembodied head. The eyes of the head immediately locked on Asteroth’s and he received a laser-triggered signal from Okada.
"How did you..?"
Asteroth allowed the sentence to enter a secure part of his brainpal and removed the three vira that would have allowed Okada to take over his cybernetic enhancements. He sent back on a Special Operations branch encrypted channel, "Apparently, the Tani bastards have some kind of way of tracking each other. You need to get that information back home.,, Brother." He closed the channel and stifled the question that was undoubtedly about to pour in his direction; How the fuck did he know of this frequency? How had they found him? Who was Asteroth? What was Tequilaria goddamnit!
He lifted the head in one hand in front of his own and chuckled. "Yeah, this Serco scum will look good on my mantelpiece."
"We are clear now then?" Lysander asked, his own hands closed around the heavy silenced machinegun he had brought from the ship and had been so helpful in killing the guards outside the chamber.
Asteroth stuffed the head into his utility bag and slowly turned to face the two Itani pilots, ignoring the whimpering techs and the equally whimpering, but less comprehending Lebermac.
"As soon as I have my suit back, you can have Leber. I trust the money will be good, or else I know where you live Lysander."
Lysander nodded and walked over to assist Samwise in de-suiting. The two Itani pilots stepped away from the suit and allowed Asteroth to regain control of it. To be honest, Samwise didn't doubt that he had been in control of it all of the time they had used in on the station, but to be fair, Samwise had not felt any restrictions in the controls. The visor closed over Asteroth's face and he raised his left arm, let a quartet of missiles fly forth to impact on the neck of each of the technicians. The wall were spattered with blood and bone, and the explosions did nothing good at all for the hearing of either of the three Itani in the room. Asteroth threw a mock-salute and turned to leave.
(OOC: Sorry Okada.... :) But you Serco doesn't really need a body to stay alive:) )
The silly Warthog attempted to continue running for a few moments, apparently hoping Rin had lagged behind to fight the Vultures. Once Rin opened fire, however, it turned to fight. A flare knocked him slightly off course, but Rin just kept turboing right past the Warthog, gaining a little distance. Greyhounds aren't any good at close fights unless they were behind the target. Not enough agility otherwise. Plus he wanted to get the wormhole in front of him so that those Vultures wouldn't pop out behind his back.
Satisfied, he turned around and barely dodged a second flare. He did take a few pings from the Hog's Mega Positron Blaster. By now his hull integrity was not so cheerful as it had been when the chase began. As he took aim to return fire, the wormhole lit up and the four Vultures emerged. They weren't close enough to engage yet though. Rin kept his focus on the Warthog, which was lining up to lob another flare. As the Hog reached what Rin assumed was the midpoint of its rotation, Rin reversed his rightward drift and landed several shots each with his Neutron Blaster and his own Mega Posi.
Now the Vultures were circling. Figuratively anyway. With the additional fire to dodge, Rin started sweating. Greyhounds were not made for stand up fights, let alone being outnumbered with no backup. Maybe he should have gotten some of those other guys to come with instead of ditching the laggards. On the other hand, he probably wouldn't have gotten here in time if he had. When one of the Vultures dropped his armor down below 30%, he decided to put off the hindsight vision test until later.
"Time to do this Itani style," Rin muttered as he engaged the turbo. Now free of the kettle of Vultures (or would it be a wake of Vultures? Did this sort of fight count as feeding?), he put a good kilometer and a half of breathing space behind him and spun around. Then he took aim a couple hundred meters off to the starboard side of the Warthog and charged. When he got nearer, he quickly rotated to aim at the space to the port side of the Warthog before reengaging his turbo, initiating a curve to throw off their aims without hampering his speed too much. The first flare went wide, but the second crisped his starboard wing stub. A second later, his maneuver had brought him up along the starboard side of the Warthog, nearly facing it. He disengaged the turbo and opened fire, destroying the ship. The close explosion nearly finished off his own ship as well, but by then he had already reengaged turbo and was on his way back out of the kettle. He took a couple more pings before he had escaped, but the ship was still flying, so he aimed for open space and plotted a course for the nearest station.
Checking his radar, Rin noticed that there were only three Vultures now. Odd. He hadn't shot at any of them, and he doubted that enough friendly fire had gone on to kill one. He'd have noticed the explosion anyway... Now he was starting to get that feeling like he'd been hoodwinked. Either the fourth had returned to assist the Trident, or had gone off to fetch help, or had been the ship actually containing LeberMac. Nothing he could do about it in this state though. On the plus side, once he had repaired he'd still have the remains of a Trident to play with, as well as possibly the three other Vultures if they stuck around. Hmm, better switch over to a better fighter in that case. He quickly rerouted to the local Xang Xi station. Aeolus was closer with less chance for ion storms along the way, but the only useful ships he had in Ukari were at the Xang Xi station. He didn't trust Aeolus with his stuff. Anybody who thought it was a good idea to make a Behemoth that carried less cargo just wasn't right in the head.
Satisfied, he turned around and barely dodged a second flare. He did take a few pings from the Hog's Mega Positron Blaster. By now his hull integrity was not so cheerful as it had been when the chase began. As he took aim to return fire, the wormhole lit up and the four Vultures emerged. They weren't close enough to engage yet though. Rin kept his focus on the Warthog, which was lining up to lob another flare. As the Hog reached what Rin assumed was the midpoint of its rotation, Rin reversed his rightward drift and landed several shots each with his Neutron Blaster and his own Mega Posi.
Now the Vultures were circling. Figuratively anyway. With the additional fire to dodge, Rin started sweating. Greyhounds were not made for stand up fights, let alone being outnumbered with no backup. Maybe he should have gotten some of those other guys to come with instead of ditching the laggards. On the other hand, he probably wouldn't have gotten here in time if he had. When one of the Vultures dropped his armor down below 30%, he decided to put off the hindsight vision test until later.
"Time to do this Itani style," Rin muttered as he engaged the turbo. Now free of the kettle of Vultures (or would it be a wake of Vultures? Did this sort of fight count as feeding?), he put a good kilometer and a half of breathing space behind him and spun around. Then he took aim a couple hundred meters off to the starboard side of the Warthog and charged. When he got nearer, he quickly rotated to aim at the space to the port side of the Warthog before reengaging his turbo, initiating a curve to throw off their aims without hampering his speed too much. The first flare went wide, but the second crisped his starboard wing stub. A second later, his maneuver had brought him up along the starboard side of the Warthog, nearly facing it. He disengaged the turbo and opened fire, destroying the ship. The close explosion nearly finished off his own ship as well, but by then he had already reengaged turbo and was on his way back out of the kettle. He took a couple more pings before he had escaped, but the ship was still flying, so he aimed for open space and plotted a course for the nearest station.
Checking his radar, Rin noticed that there were only three Vultures now. Odd. He hadn't shot at any of them, and he doubted that enough friendly fire had gone on to kill one. He'd have noticed the explosion anyway... Now he was starting to get that feeling like he'd been hoodwinked. Either the fourth had returned to assist the Trident, or had gone off to fetch help, or had been the ship actually containing LeberMac. Nothing he could do about it in this state though. On the plus side, once he had repaired he'd still have the remains of a Trident to play with, as well as possibly the three other Vultures if they stuck around. Hmm, better switch over to a better fighter in that case. He quickly rerouted to the local Xang Xi station. Aeolus was closer with less chance for ion storms along the way, but the only useful ships he had in Ukari were at the Xang Xi station. He didn't trust Aeolus with his stuff. Anybody who thought it was a good idea to make a Behemoth that carried less cargo just wasn't right in the head.